An inhaler with a sensor is helping to reduce emergency room visits and lower health care costs by beaming data back to doctors.

“Earlier this year, 498 asthma patients in California were split into two test groups. One group puffed their inhalers normally. But the second group was given a sensor that attaches to the top of the inhaler and beams data about their usage back to Dr. Rajang Merchant of Woodland Health Care. Each day, Dr. Merchant scans a list of several hundred patients to find the handful that need to be contacted for an office follow-up.”